Chase UR points--am I understanding this correctly?

[cannotWAIT]

These are the questions of someone brand new to the world of credit card points. I just signed up for Chase Sapphire Preferred with the 100,000 point bonus and $4,000 spend in 3 months requirement. Please confirm that I'm understanding this right: If you use your points in the Pay Yourself Back program, they are worth .0125 per point. The Pay Yourself Back program can be used at Home Depot/other building supply stores (also groceries etc but Home Depot is my area of interest; also, not interested in traveling).

1) So in the next three months, I use the credit card to pay for $2,750 worth of regular bills and $1,250 worth of stuff from Home Depot, then they give me the points and I apply them to the Home Depot purchases, erasing $1,250 of the charges. Is this right so far?

2) Can I use part of the money I spend at Home Depot to buy Home Depot gift cards?

3) Are there any other ways to maximize the value of the points?

Thanks for your help!

[seattlecyclone]

1) So in the next three months, I use the credit card to pay for $2,750 worth of regular bills and $1,250 worth of stuff from Home Depot, then they give me the points and I apply them to the Home Depot purchases, erasing $1,250 of the charges. Is this right so far?

Yes. In fact the $4,000 minimum spend will bring in at least 4,000 points in addition to the sign-up bonus, so you should make sure to have at least $1,300 of pay-yourself-back eligible purchases.

2) Can I use part of the money I spend at Home Depot to buy Home Depot gift cards?

Probably. Try to buy too many and you might run afoul of their fraud-detection algorithms (that happened to me once trying to buy $500 of gift cards at the grocery store), but some of this should work out fine. Try it for yourself right after you get the card and see how it shows up on your statement.

3) Are there any other ways to maximize the value of the points?

The Chase points can be transferred to various airline and hotel reward programs, which can in many circumstances give you more than 1.25˘ of value per point. The Points Guy is a good starting point for learning more about this. I've never gotten into it myself, as checking all the reward programs to see who will give me the best deal on an upcoming trip never seemed like an enjoyable use of my time, but there are people who really love that stuff.

[cannotWAIT]

What do you mean by “see how it shows up on your statement”? Are your charges marked as being eligible for Pay Yourself Back?

[seattlecyclone]

Yeah, a few days after the purchase you should be able to log into the Chase website and go to the "pay yourself back" section of the rewards area. The eligible purchases will show up there.

[travel2020]

The Chase points can be transferred to various airline and hotel reward programs, which can in many circumstances give you more than 1.25˘ of value per point. The Points Guy is a good starting point for learning more about this. I've never gotten into it myself, as checking all the reward programs to see who will give me the best deal on an upcoming trip never seemed like an enjoyable use of my time, but there are people who really love that stuff.

This is definitely a good use of chase points if you travel regularly and have some flexibility. In fact, pre-pandemic this is the only way I’ve ever used chase points ie flights and hotel stays, and never used the pay yourself approach. As an example, with some planning one can typically get a transatlantic award for 60k-70k points roundtrip whereas a cash ticket might cost you $1500 or more. Last minute tickets on points can also be a great use as those tickets are usually very expensive and paradoxically, airline awards are sometimes easier very close to the flight date. Point transfer to hotels can also offer good value depending on the location and when you travel.

[firestarter2018]

In general you will get the most value from your UR points if you transfer to one of their travel partners, and typically business class fares on various international airlines will give you the most bang for your buck if you compare the points to the cash price. That said, most people would never pay cash for a business class ticket, so "best value" is subjective.  Using the points to pay for air tickets or hotel stays through the Chase travel portal gives you 1.25 cents of value per point so that's attractive as well -- and it's also a lot easier than having to figure out all the different nuances of different airlines' award charts, rules, etc. 

The Points Guy is a good blog to start with, but google a phrase like "top 10 best uses of Chase UR points" and you'll get some good ideas to start researching.

[Duke03]

The pay your self back feature is very easy to use.  Don't forget you can also buy gift cards aka visa gift cards at most home improvement and grocery stores so you are basically trading points for cash.  The UR website is super easy to use and you can get a lot of bang for you buck when it comes to using points.  I love using points for rental cars, restaurant gift cards and show tickets in Vegas.  Before Covid I'd never cash in points for cash back, but since we couldn't travel I was earning points faster than I could spend them.  So in the past year I've converted over 1,000,000 UR points into cash back and cash equivalent.  Only real reason I did that was I'm a hard core churner and didn't want to risk eyes on my account and a possible shut down.... So a bird in the hand type of deal...  My household can easily earn 150k-200k UR points a month so going forward I like to keep about 2-3 million points on hand and the rest I'm just cashing in.

[We be free if we try]

...  My household can easily earn 150k-200k UR points a month so going forward I like to keep about 2-3 million points on hand and the rest I'm just cashing in.

Wow - how in the world do you earn so many points per month?? I know you don’t spend anywhere near that…maybe I really don’t understand churning?

[NextTime]

In general you will get the most value from your UR points if you transfer to one of their travel partners, and typically business class fares on various international airlines will give you the most bang for your buck if you compare the points to the cash price. That said, most people would never pay cash for a business class ticket, so "best value" is subjective.  Using the points to pay for air tickets or hotel stays through the Chase travel portal gives you 1.25 cents of value per point so that's attractive as well -- and it's also a lot easier than having to figure out all the different nuances of different airlines' award charts, rules, etc. 

The Points Guy is a good blog to start with, but google a phrase like "top 10 best uses of Chase UR points" and you'll get some good ideas to start researching.

I've used the Chase Travel Portal many times to purchase airline tickets.  It's convenient and easy to use.
I've never had much luck finding flights for doing the point transfer. 

[cannotWAIT]

Thanks for all the tips! I know everyone says travel is the best way to maximize the value of points but I'm way more focused right now on maximizing my savings so I can quit my job and am super excited that I can essentially boost my savings by $1300 this way. I've been vaguely aware of churning for many years but was never very motivated to hassle with it until I started tinkering with retirement calculators and seeing what a huge difference a small change can make over time.

[Duke03]

...  My household can easily earn 150k-200k UR points a month so going forward I like to keep about 2-3 million points on hand and the rest I'm just cashing in.

Wow - how in the world do you earn so many points per month?? I know you don’t spend anywhere near that…maybe I really don’t understand churning?

We manufacture spend about 75k a month and then my FIL is a business owner who orders anywhere between 75k-100k of product through a distributor each month.  I talked him into using one of my business cards to pay for it each month so that way we get all those points. 

[Rosy]

I'm a fan of cashback so I don't mess with the travel stuff. The only time I deviate from that is when they have a special on one of their gift cards that I want.
Like their Lowes gift card - $40 in rewards points for a $50 card. An extra ten bucks in my pocket:).

I hate the Wells Fargo card Mr. uses because you can only use the cash to pay their credit card. Poo on that.
We are not big spenders but I just ordered a $100 Amazon gc using his points.

My favorite card is one of the NFCU cards ($49 annual membership) - they always give you 2% plus 3% on travel and one of their specials at the moment is five times the points on dining and food delivery until Aug 31. Plus they have some awesome travel perks - an easy $100 plus.
Plus - I got like $140 back for switching my Amazon Prime annual membership to NFCU for payment - sweet. They paid me back in the same payment cycle - kudos - very smooth.